Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?

[peoli]

Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon - an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 petagrams of it (a petagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That's about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth's soils. In comparison, about 350 petagrams of carbon have been emitted from all fossil-fuel combustion and human activities since 1850. Most of this carbon is located in thaw-vulnerable topsoils within 10 feet (3 meters) of the surface.

But, as scientists are learning, permafrost - and its stored carbon - may not be as permanent as its name implies. And that has them concerned.

"Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius) in just the past 30 years," Miller said. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming."

The distinction is critical. Molecule per molecule, methane is 22 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide on a 100-year timescale, and 105 times more potent on a 20-year timescale. If just one percent of the permafrost carbon released over a short time period is methane, it will have the same greenhouse impact as the 99 percent that is released as carbon dioxide.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20130610.html#.UfCwJ43vu3W

[AverageJoe90]

1. Not convinced. Not yet.

Sorry to break it to you, but there's just no real evidence to suggest that the "monster" is really stirring.

With that said, however, it certainly wouldn't hurt to continue monitoring the Arctic, though.

[peoli]

2. Sorry to break it to you but...

Maybe you should voice your concerns to NASA because I am bored of talking with nonbelievers. You can believe whatever you want.

Here is their info:

Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0474
[email protected]

[peoli]

4. I really don't appreciate your condescending "Hate to break it to you" attitude....

...as if you are somehow more aware than I am about science, the environment, ecosystems or anything. Please do not speak to me like I am a child.

[bahrbearian]

7. Inhofe? is that You?

[City Lights]

21. I was wondering if it was Joe the Plumber.

[morningfog]

11. You seem to deny the existence of global climate change.

[NickB79]

13. Na, he just wants "more research"

Because the past 30 years and literally thousands of peer-reviewed articles JUST aren't quite enough, you see.

In the meantime: http://www.livescience.com/38347-north-pole-ice-melt-lake.html

[Junkdrawer]

15. No. He just minimizes it. n/t

[AverageJoe90]

26. Nope, not in the least.

You might want to hang around me a bit more. Maybe you should take a look at the environment-related stuff I've recced over the years.

[morningfog]

27. I pay no attention to anyone's recs. But, I have seen you post "skepticism" on multiple

stories now.

[Squinch]

28. From your posts here, pretty sure I don't want to hang around you a bit more.

[CreekDog]

24. It's your job to not be convinced, you've been denying climate change since you've been here

[AverageJoe90]

25. Which isn't true and you know it.

And you never provide a shred of actual evidence when you accuse me of such. *Tsk, tsk*, you'd think you would finally have gotten the hint somewhere, that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong about me(if you were willing to broaden your scope, you'd find that out pretty quickly).

[Zoeisright]

3. That's the tipping point.

When the permafrost goes, all bets are off. Even the ignorant deniers will have to face this.

[AverageJoe90]

5. What do you mean, "All bets are off"? n/t

[tavalon]

8. Problem is, or maybe it isn't a problem,

is that that is the no turning back point. Deny or not, we will all die.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. !

[olddots]

9. I'm afraid that a large portion of earthlings want to die in ignorance

and believe in superstition instead of science

[City Lights]

22. Sadly, I agree.

And they're fucking it up for the rest of us.

[WinkyDink]

36. And will. So that will work out very well for them. [tm Bar]

[bemildred]

10. Ya think? nt

[dipsydoodle]

12. Last time it happened was the Permian period

Shit happens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event

[Junkdrawer]

14. Peter Sinclair covered this a while back...

[Delphinus]

17. Good video.

Thanks for sharing.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. K&R The interesting times are just beginning,

and we get to see them start while surrounded by ignorant jackasses telling themselves, and anybody that will listen, that it's not as bad as it looks.

[LWolf]

18. I don't scare easily.

I'm not afraid of the things that most people are.

This, though, scares me badly enough that I can't read it head on, all at once. I've glanced at it, picked up a bit, glanced away to something else...come back, and finally finished the whole article.

Which offers no comforting solution.

[Hydra]

19. The problem is that we're already in feedback

There isn't a "solution." Last year was the first big blast past the tipping point. It's running on its own power now.

As George Carlin said, "Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked. Difference."

We got complacent- we started chasing mythical greatness instead of looking for sustainable ways to stay in balance with the Earth. Easter Island goes global.

[Squinch]

29. I'm right there with you. And even if there were a solution, there are so many who would thwart the

implementation of it.

Even in this thread, there's someone denying and stonewalling.

It seems hopeless.

[hobbit709]

20. More like a sleeping mass extinction event.

[datasuspect]

23. satan IS working in my life!

i hope he will answer my prayers!

[ananda]

30. The methane release will really fuck things up!

Am I an alarmist?

I don't think so.

[glinda]

31. C'sake......I had this in a class as a fact back in the early early 80's. When

are we going to get past all of this and do something. It is really too late so science better come up with a way to almost reverse it at this point.
I am getting hugely f'in depressed. No offense to poster.....
Permafrost acts like a chain reaction. Once it starts it does not stop.

[peoli]

32. No offense taken.

I know this is not new info, but it is always new to someone and needs to be constantly put out there.

[Mojorabbit]

33. K and R nt

[CK_John]

34. We need to move that dome.

[Scurrilous]

35. K & R